UFC 281  PREVIEW

It’s at the mythical Madison Square Garden that on Saturday, the UFC will put down its bags for the penultimate numbered PPV of the year. 5 fights in the main event. This marks the return to the octagon of Dan Hooker after several defeats in recent years making him fall from the lightweights ranking. He will be opposed to the Peruvian Claudio Puelles.

The lightweight’s clash: Poirier vs Chandler

This is the most explosive matchup on paper with Poirier, the record holder of 8 KO/TKO’s in his division, on one side and Michael Chandler, only his 4th fight in the UFC, on the other side. Chandler delivered a remarkable performance at UFC 274 with a fatal high kick against Tony Ferguson. The stakes in this match are simple: the winner will get a shot at the belt against Islam Makhachev.

(C) Carla Esparza vs. (#2) Zhang Weili – women’s strawweight title bout

When someone draws up a list of the UFC’s unsung heroes, Carla Esparza will not be too far from the top. Without drawing too many headlines, the American already finds herself a two-time strawweight champion, and was the first woman to hold that title when she defeated Rose Namajunas in 2016. Six years later and lightning struck twice as once again she defeated Thug Rose to make her way back to the top of the division. A stalwart of more than a decade as a professional MMA fighter, Esparza (19-6) has taken on the best in the division and is riding a six-fight win streak.

Zhang Weili is a fighting enigma. Will a vicious style she has caught the eye from the moment she stepped foot inside the Octagon back in 2018. She announced herself to the world in 2019 with a devastating 42-second win over Jessica Andrade to claim the strawweight title and has since gone on to win the 2020 fight of the year after a memorable encounter with Joanna Jędrzejczyk. The first Chinese fighter to win UFC gold, Zhang (22-3) will be going all out to regain her title this weekend.

The MAIN EVENT: Israel Adesanya VS Alex Pereira: a third confrontation for the history

It’s a storyline worthy of the WWE, the two fighters faced each other on two occasions in kickboxing. At the end of both fights it’s the same outcome, the Brazilian wins. Here it’s different, Pereira faces the reigning champion who has defended his belt 5 times and has never lost in middleweights. But beware for the last style Bender, he has already been knocked out by ¨Pereira, the power of POATAN is lightning, Sean Strickland his last victim remembers it. Nevertheless, Adesanya knows how to manage the striking of an opponent, we can evoke the case of Yoel Romero where the Cuban had sounded Adesanya then the Nigerian had managed the fight without difficulties during the 5 rounds. He will be obliged not to fight like his previous opponents, especially against Cannonier, a management would not be enough against a puncher of the level of Pereira.